


if all these things are lessons, then maybe I should count my blessings

by rawrimmapanda



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Isekai AU, M/M, Trapped in a video game, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27599408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rawrimmapanda/pseuds/rawrimmapanda
Summary: A wicked slyph decides to capture Nik's soul in some weird indie video game. Pate has to go on a weird quest to get him back.
Relationships: Nikolaj Ehlers/Patrik Laine
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Hockey Big Bang (2020)





	1. Spirits of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to my beta for looking this over, my partner for listening to this dumb idea and giving me tons of feedback (including choosing the games used in this), and to @somehowunbroken for the lovely playlist to go along with it. 
> 
> This is a weird idea, and I later found out an actual trope, that just popped into my head. There is mild discussion of video game violence, but nothing explicit. Again, huge thanks to my partner for listening to me rant about this and stand there like a conspiracy theorist in front of notes. I hope everyone enjoys the weirdness.

Pate took his hands off his keyboard and closed out of Fortnite, ready to turn the stream off for the day. The season was over and he was staying in Winnipeg for a few weeks. He wanted to pack properly and finish some things at the arena. He also needed to do some follow up appointments regarding his sprained thumb. He said his normal good byes and then sat back for a second. He glanced at his phone, noticing he missed a few messages from Nik. He opened his phone, idly using his other hand mess with the cord He saw Nik had suggested a new game for them to try out. He sent back a message asking for a link to this game that Nik suggested. A message popped up over discord with a link to some indie game on Steam. Pate rolled his eyes and asked Nik if he wanted to try it out tonight. As he was waiting for a response, he glanced over the game. It was a RPG named Spirits of Fate. Not usually his type of game, but if Nik wanted to give it a try, he’d do it. He saw a discord message pop up and it was Nik basically saying yes in his long winded way. He never could just say yes, he always had to have a story before it. Pate replied back and started to download the game. It was in early access and was free, so he really had no reason not to try it. His thumb had been feeling much better since getting out of the bubble, so he figured it was ok to keep going.

As the game finished loading up, he heard the familiar ringing from a Discord call from his headset that was sitting on his desk. He put them on and dryly answered the call. 

“You know you can just say yes right?”

Nik laughed and Pate could picture the devilish grin that came with it. They had been out of the bubble for a few days at this point and Pate felt like it had been ages since he saw Nik. They were practically inseparable while in the bubble, to the point that some of the other guys on the team started to notice. 

“So, how do we play this game?” Nik asked, sounding confused. 

“Dude, you picked it out. I don’t know.” Pate fired back, biting back a laugh. 

“Oh! I found the invite button. Sent you a request.” 

Pate clicked the accept button and the game loads up to a character selection screen. He picks the one with the blonde hair before Nik does, knowing that Nik would default to picking it. They got a message about how playing cooperatively can have adverse effects, but Pate clicked accept on the box before reading it fully.

“You fucker! You knew I was going to pick that!” Nik yelled out incredulously.

The game loaded in and they figured out the controls as they went, completing their first quest. Once they got the hang of it, they left the beginners zone and fought their first boss monster. The boss was a giant sylph with long flowing white hair. She cast different colored spells and the last one she cast before the fight was seemingly over was called Soul Steal. Pate rolled his eyes at the name and then heard the sound of someone leaving a discord call. He switched over to discord and saw that Nik had disconnected. He looked back at the game and before he knew it, something bad happened. 

Standing before his character in game was a perfect replica of Nik. Except instead of being a character that could move, he was trapped in a jar on a chain that the boss was holding. 

“My name is Aeilsil. Your journey begins now.”

Pate sat there, staring at his computer confused. 

“If you want your, uh, friend back, you’ll have to complete a unique quest. Do you accept?”

At this point, Pate felt that he had royally screwed up. They were supposed to have some good bye party on Zoom in a few days and someone would notice Nik not being there. He clicked the accept button and saw a new dialog pop up.

“You will go on a path through different games. Your friend will be in each game. You will collect the 7 parts of his soul and bring them back to me in the end. I will be there as well, watching. You must rescue him in each game according to my directions. Once you’ve completed all the challenges, you will have your friend back. If you fail, his soul is mine to keep.”

Pate stared at the screen in disbelief. He had to save Nik and if it meant doing this silly quest, he’d do it. He clicked the button to start the quest and the slyph was standing there with a list of 6 different game choices. Pate looked them over, debating on which one to start first. He wasn’t sure what Civilization was, but he recognized most of the others. He decided to save Civilization for last so he’d have time to prepare. Before he could second guess himself, he clicked on the one that said PlayerUnknon’s Battlegrounds. He had heard of PUBG before since it’s close to Fortnite. That had to be the easiest option of the games.


	2. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

Aeilsil popped up again and smiled. 

“Good choice. This task should be easy for you. All you have to do is win 15 matches in solo play. No grouping with friends.”

Pate groaned. He hated playing Fortnite alone most days. He figured PUBG would be similar and he’d struggle. He Googled the game and looked up a few of the modes to get an idea of what to expect. Since it came before Fortnite, he was able to get a good idea of what to expect from his Google search. He booted up Steam again and searched for the game. His Steam library wasn’t the largest out there, but he had a feeling he’d be adding to it as this quest continued. 

Pate groaned when he saw the price. It was a 30 dollar game. Not like 30 dollars was much to him, he just wondered how this would work if people with less money got roped into this quest. He confirmed his payment details and started to download the game. While he waited, he looked up a few videos of how to play so he wouldn’t have to screw around in the tutorial for long. The faster he could get Nik back, the better. 

As soon as the game finished downloading, Pate quickly switched back to Spirits of Fate and took a screenshot of the other games he was going to have to play. Might as well let them download overnight since he’ll have to play them. The only game that concerned him was Pokemon. He didn’t own a Switch and would have to find one tomorrow. 

Pate closed out of Spirits of Fate and hit the install button for PUBG. The install was pretty quick and soon enough Pate was clicking around the tutorial. Like he expected, it was similar to Fortnite. He just had to get used to not being able to build anything. As he loaded into his first game, he was shocked to find that he had to find everything for himself. 

Pate scouted around and found a gun. He wasn’t sure how good the gun was going to be, but it was better than having nothing. He grabbed the med kits that he found around the house he landed by and then heard the shot from behind him. Next thing he knew, he was laying on the ground and the system message was giving him an option to quit the match. 

“Vittu”

This was going to be harder than Pate thought. He loaded into a new match and vowed to be more on top of things this time. He couldn’t help to notice how late it was getting. Once he loaded in and parachuted to his location, he quickly found cover and a weapon. It was only a pistol, but again, better than nothing. He ran into the nearest house and picked up all the bandages he found. He snuck out from behind a wall because he could hear someone entering the house. He peeked around the corner and just as the guy opened the door, he fired off a couple of shots. He got his first kill and fist bumped the air. He quickly loaded up a new weapon and went on a quick killing spree. He made it to the final four and when he ran out in an open field, someone tagged him. 

Pate sighed, that match went better, but it was getting late. He closed out of the game and shut down his computer and decided to head to bed. He had an open day tomorrow, so he could focus on getting his wins. 

As Pate crawled into bed, he let out a deep sigh. Nik meant the world to him and he would do anything to get him back. As he drifted off to sleep he saw Nik’s impish smile. It was his favorite thing to fall asleep imagining. 

Pate woke up to his phone buzzing incessantly on the table next to him. He noticed it was Blake calling, so he answered. 

“Yeah?” Pate said groggily. 

“Have you heard from Nik lately? We’ve been trying to get in touch with him all morning.” Blake sounded genuinely concerned. 

“He’s camping and doesn’t have access to his phone. He let me know last night before he left. Guess he didn’t tell the group chat.” Pate was proud of how fast he came up with a cover story. 

“Well, if you talk to him, let him know we’re going to miss him on the call tonight.”

Pate said his good byes and it hit him hard. The going away call was tonight and he had to set time aside for that. His hope to have Nik back in a day was shot down with that realization. He wanted to cry, but all he could do is feel sick to his stomach. He reached in the drawer of his nightstand and grabbed a couple tums. He popped them in his mouth and started to chew, hoping that it would get rid of the feeling in his stomach. 

As Pate climbed out of bed, he toyed with the idea of streaming his quest on his Twitch channel. He shook his head at the thought. If he streamed it, people would know what happened with Nik. The team would think he did something to hurt Nik, which is the furthest from the truth. All he wanted to do is play a silly game with Nik. He knew he’d be apart from Nik for a bit so he figured the game would bring them together while apart. It was stupid and now he’s having to rescue him. 

Pate brushed his teeth, pondering how he felt about Nik. He always came back to the same thought process. If the league was more open, he’d tell Nik how he felt and then move on with his life after being rejected. It was weird to be in love with your best friend, especially if they weren’t an option. He had dared himself to tell Nik before his contract was up. That way when he was rejected, he could just sign with a different team or ask for a trade. 

Pate spit out the toothpaste, grabbed a splash of water to rinse his mouth out, and then grabbed his towel to wipe his face. He knew he had to make progress so he made his way to the living room. He turned on his computer and booted up PUBG. He knew his challenge was to win solo matches, so he just dialed himself into that mode and got to work. 

Pate won his first and second matches of the day, giving him false hope that he could pull it off. He died early on in the next three matches and decided he should take a break to eat. In the bottom of his computer screen, he noticed that there was a ticker that wasn’t there before. It simply had 2/15. He figured that was the stupid game keeping track of his progress. He shook his head and headed to the kitchen to find food. He scrounged around in the fridge and all he could find was some leftover Chinese food, so he popped that in the microwave and while it was heating up, he grabbed a banana from the counter. He heard the microwave ding as he was finishing up his banana. He tossed the peel into the trash, grabbed a fork, and grabbed his food. He headed back to his computer desk and pulled up some twitch streams of PUBG so he could get a better idea of some strategies. So far, what he was doing was working, but since he hit those losses, he wanted to rethink how to approach the game. 

After watching a few streams, Pate reopened the game and got to work. He found himself going on a win streak again, this time playing more conservatively. He strung together a win streak of about 6 games, bringing his total up to 8. He was halfway there and finally hitting his stride. 

Pate found himself losing a couple more and then banged out 6 wins in a row. He relaxed and sat back. He only had one more win to get and then he was on to the next part of the quest. He banged out his last win and he saw a little quest icon pop up in the bottom of his computer screen. He clicked on it and it took him to Spirits of Fate. He was greeted by Aeilsil and was given the option to continue to the next game. He clicked the link for the next game and it started an automatic download and he was greeted by installation instructions. As the game installed, he rubbed his thumb a bit. It was getting a little sore from playing so much.


	3. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Once Pate clicked the button, a new game option popped up for him. He saw that his next task was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. He was familiar with this game. He had once picked it up as a fun little experiment before Fortnite was huge. He logged into his account and Aeilsil popped up once he got to the character selection screen. 

“You seem pleased with this objective. I’ll make it simple on you, as a favor. You just need to win ten arms race matches.”

Pate smiled and clicked the button to confirm that he was accepting that task. Shooter were easy for him and this mode seemed to be easy. All he had to do was get kills with the gold knife. Getting to the knife was going to be the difficult part, but he was up for the challenge. 

Pate settled in and entered his first match. He was thrown into the Lunacy map and started to hunt for weapons. He found a submachine gun and found himself going off on the other players. He got a couple of headshots and then the screen flashed to the rest of the people in the match that Pate was on a killing spree. 

Pate realized that this made him a huge target, so he started to play more passively. Eventually he found the gold knife. He picked it up and as he turned around, he saw a player lunging at him. He quickly started slashing and he was granted a kill, which won him the match. 

One down, nine more to go. Pate was excited to continue. His next few matches went by fairly quickly, him earning wins, bringing his total up to four. He decided to take a stretch break and to ice his hand some more. Once he was done icing his hand, he went back to the computer. He saw his phone light up with a new message. He figured whoever it was could wait. 

Pate jumped back in and played three more matches, winning only once in that time. He was starting to get frustrated so he decided that another break was in order. He was in the kitchen getting himself a refill of his bottle of water when he heard his phone buzzing against the counter. It was Barkov calling, which was something he never did. He swiped up and answered the video call. 

“You’ve been ignoring the world. I know losing sucks, but this is a new level for you.” 

“Hello to you too.” Pate responded dryly. 

“Anyway, are you down to play some Fortnite or what? I’ve seen you on discord but you’ve been playing some weird games lately.” Sasha countered, clearly trying to rile Pate up. Pate took a deep breath, debating if he should tell Sasha about what happened. He decided that if one of his best friends couldn’t understand what was at stake, then he chose the wrong type of people to hang out with. 

“I fucked up.” Pate muttered out, barely above a whisper, looking down at his hands and not at his phone. Sasha seemed to have noticed. 

“This isn’t about hockey is it?” Pate shook his head, afraid to look into the tiny screen. 

“Nik is gone.” Pate muttered out, not quite sure if that was the right way to put it.

Sasha squinted his eyes through the camera and Pate felt judged. 

“Ok, he’s not gone gone, but I have to get him back.” 

“I’m even more confused now dude.” Pate took a deep breath and began to explain the game to him and what happened. As he explained more and more, Sasha started to get very confident. 

“So, I can help you?” Sasha asked once Pate was finished explaining what was going on. 

“I’m not sure. I just know I need to win these games.” Sasha nodded and let Pate know that he was there if his help was needed. They hung up and Pate found himself back at his computer. He was halfway through this step and he was determined to get it out of the way today. 

Pate refocused in on the game and started a new match. He was thrust into the match quickly and found the golden knife rather quickly. He sliced his kill to pieces and then queued into a new match. The second match wasn’t as fast, but he found the knife all the same. He kept up the streak until he was one game away. 

Pate queued into what would be his last match and focused on quickly eliminating the target. Once he did so, he was greeted with the chat box from Spirits of Fate.


	4. Diablo 3

Pate smiled as he clicked the pop up window on his screen. It was Aeilsil grimacing as she noticed that he had completed another step in the quest. He was feeling very confident having downed both PUBG and CS:GO, that whatever she laid in front of him was going to be just as easy. 

“You’re confident I see. We will see after this next step how confident you really are.” Aeilsil said, smirking some. 

Pate grinned and hit the button to continue to the next step. As he clicked the button, he heard some piano music start and crows cawing. A look of confusion crossed his face. He figured he’d just shoot his way through the quest and it would be fine. This wasn’t music you’d find in a shooter. 

“Your next task is straightforward. Defeat Malthael in Diablo 3 via the storyline and do so on Master difficulty. The higher difficulty you complete it on, the less you’ll have to do in your next task. The choice is up to you on how you proceed forward after this point.” Aeilsil faded to the background as the computer screen went black. 

Pate closed out of Spirits of Fate game and hit the link for the install instructions for the next game. Diablo required him to install BattleNet, so he did so. He entered the code on the website to get his game to download and noticed it was a pretty large game. He decided that while he installed the game he’d make some dinner. As he heated up his chicken and rice leftovers, he scrolled through Google on his phone. He wanted to get a feel of what he was stepping into with this game. It was different than anything he’d played before. He wanted to make sure he got the gist of everything, but it seemed to be a story based game, so he was just going to focus on that. He was confused as to what Aeilsil meant by higher difficulty, so he decided to google the difficulty level. His eyes widened when he saw that Master was just the highest you could play before a certain level. As he read further, he learned that he’d have to hit level 60 before being able to unlock the Torment levels. He nodded as he read, soaking in as much information as he could handle. The quest was pretty straightforward at least. He learned that he just basically had to play the story mode and complete it. 

Pate heard his food ding and pocketed his phone. He grabbed his food and went back to his computer to do more research. He sat down and mindlessly started to eat as he researched classes in Diablo. He debated between two classes, Witch Doctor and Demon Hunter, before just flipping a coin. It landed heads up, which he had assigned to Demon Hunter, so that’s what he decided he was going to play. He saw that the game had gotten to a point where he could start playing while it finished installing, so he booted it up. He got to the character creation screen and created his toon. He decided that the female sprite looked cooler and after trying to figure out a good name, he settled on Nikky. It sounded girly enough for him, and helped him refocus on why he was doing this quest. He missed Nik and he was upset that he had no way of contacting him or seeing how he was doing. Was he able to eat? What about sleep? 

Pate had no idea how being trapped in a video game worked, but he hoped that Nik was ok. 

The game thrust Pate into the first act and he was off. He figured out the controls pretty quickly and noticed he had some open squares assigned to his number keys. He assumed that it was a spell situation and he’d get more as he leveled up. His first goal was to get to level 60 as fast as he could. He quickly tabbed out and looked up a leveling guide, but all he could find were guides on being leeched during a season. That was no help to him so he figured he’d just figure it out as he went. He quickly checked to see if his difficulty level was still on Master and once he confirmed it, he continued to level. He got through the first few battles and got a chuckle out of an NPC going “This is killing business” after he killed a bunch of undead monsters. His English wasn’t always the best, but he could appreciate a pun here and there. 

Pate continued through the first part of the story, taking time to kill everything he could. It was a slow process, but he was seeing the levels quickly add up. By the time he was talking to Leah again, he was already level 15. His quest to 60 was going much faster than he anticipated. He kept plugging through the story, finding himself getting more and more invested in the story line. Soon enough he found himself at the end of Act 1 and he realized a few hours had passed. He closed out of the game and decided to video chat with his parents. 

Pate settled in on the couch and called his parents. He let it ring a few times before realizing he wasn’t going to get anyone to answer. He opened his Twitch app on his phone and mirrored it to the television once he found a streamer he liked to watch. He sat there with his eyes closed as he listened to the streamer complain about getting stream sniped in Fortnite. As he started to drift off to sleep fully, he felt his phone vibrating. He blinked a few times and picked up his phone. It was his parents calling him back, so he sat up and answered. As he was answering, he made sure to run his fingers through his hair so it didn’t look like he had just been napping. 

Pate waved to his parents and said his hellos as he watched his mom and dad crowd around one phone. They chatted for a bit and Pate was glad that they were ok with him staying back for a bit. He made up a lie about needing to finalize some sponsorship stuff and was reminded to let his agent take care of it sometimes. His mom asked after Nik, as she always did, and he just let her know that he was doing well and promised to send a picture in a few days. 

Once Pate was off the phone, he sighed heavily, thinking about how he missed Nik. He wasn’t sure how he was going to send a picture to his mom, but he’d figure it out. He figured he had a few dumb selfies that they took together over the season that he could send. He sat up straighter in on the couch and looked at the time. He turned off the television and decided to grab something to snack on and an energy drink. As he pounded back the drink, he made sure to eat some fruit to offset how terrible the drink was for him. He thought about how much he missed Nik’s dumb smile and he refocused on finishing his current step of the quest. 

Pate tossed the empty can into his trash, taking a mental note to actually take the trash out when he went outside next. He then sat back down at his computer and opened up Steam. He logged into Spirits of Fate and was greeted with a new chat box. He looked over his options and saw that he had the option to chat with the dumb sylph that took his Nik. He clicked on that and what looked to be a direct message box popped up. He saw that they were connected to him so he started to type. 

>I’m doing the quest, but I want to know if he’s safe. Can I see him? Can I say hi?

Pate watched carefully for a reply. This was his only hope. 

You may see him. He is eating well but not sleeping the best. I’ll let him know you say hello.<

Pate saw the chat box disappear and a giant pop up window with a close up of Nik being trapped in his bottle. There was a little bed and he could see the remnants of his last meal on a little table. It looked like he was well taken care of, but he couldn’t say anything. He smiled and took a screenshot of Nik sleeping. It was the closest he was going to get to a picture of him these days. He reopened the chat box and said his thanks and closed down the game before he got a response. He had to continue on Diablo. 

Pate reopened the Diablo client and started to work on Act 2. By this point he was already level 25 so he figured he’d hit 60 by the end of the weekend. He continued to progress through the story, getting sucked back in as he fought off Maghda and rescued Leah’s mother. Once he hit the end of Act 2 he decided to order dinner. He pulled up his SkipTheDishes app and ordered some Greek food to be delivered. He started to work on Act 3 while he waited on his food to arrive. He was careful to not fully tunnel vision into the game, but failed at that task. He was jolted out of his focused mood by the buzzer for his apartment going off. He got up and let the delivery guy into the building and waited for his food to get to his floor. He opened the door just a the guy was about to knock and thanked him. The guy stammered, realizing who he had just delivered food to. Pate grinned and offered to take a selfie with him. They quickly took a picture together and then he went inside. He grabbed a fork from the kitchen on the way to his living room. He knew that the plastic forks they sent usually didn’t hold up to the food he ordered. 

Pate set his food on the coffee table and put another stream on his television to listen to while he ate. He absentmindedly ate his dinner while scrolling through Instagram. He felt himself get full and realized he had two thirds of his food left. He replaced the cover on the takeout container and took his leftovers to the fridge. He figured they’d be good for lunch tomorrow. He tossed his fork into the sink and threw out the bag that the food came in and his napkins. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed back to his computer. He adjusted his seat a bit, thankful he bought one of those expensive gaming chairs, and settled back in. He was up to level 40 so he wanted to grind it out to 60. At this point, he had most of his spells so he looked up a guide on gear he should be looking for and what spells he should use. He found one rather quickly and bookmarked it for when he hit level 60. After he closed it down, he realized he could start picking his spells and passives that he already had unlocked. He reopened the page and pulled it up on his second monitor. He looked back and forth while he set up his spells. They were different than what he was using, but he was excited to try something new. Until this point, he had just been winging it with whatever he liked using. He scanned the written part of the guide on how things worked and decided to keep it up while he did a test run of spells on some monsters outside of town. 

Once Pate figured out how things worked, he went back to town and looked at his gear. It needed some work, but he learned from the guide that it would take getting to 60 to get the gear he really wanted, so he just crafted what he could and got back to tweaking his gear. One of the amulets he had dropped that he wanted to use was the Halcyon's Amulet. It was clearly a tribute to deadmau5 and he chuckled at how it worked. When he cast a certain spell, it caused the monsters to jump up and down as if they were at a rave. He could appreciate all the little puns and tributes that were in the game. Finally he was satisfied with where his gear was for his level and he turned his focus back on the story. He continued through Act 3, learning more and more about the lore and getting attached to different NPCs. He fought off the demons and found himself getting close to starting Act 4 in rather good time. Pate finally hit level 60 right on the last boss of Act 3. He went back to town and before talking to the NPC for the next act, he backed out of the game to change the difficulty. While he was backed out of the game, he looked at the time and his eyes widened. He had been playing the game all day and all night and probably should have gone to bed an hour ago. 

Pate closed out of the game and turned his computer off. He knew he only had two acts left, so he’d be on to the next step of his quest tomorrow. This gave him a sliver of hope before he fell asleep. He drifted off to sleep imagining Nik next to him. He was thankful that his hand had basically healed up, but he had a follow up first thing on Monday so he was hoping he didn’t do any lasting damage with all of his gaming lately. 

When Pate woke in the morning, he was greeted to bright rays of sunshine filtering in through the blinds. He rolled over and looked at his phone to see that it was 11 in the morning. He slept in much later than expected, but given that he didn’t get to bed until 3 in the morning, he’ll count it as a win. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, he had been meaning to buy some blackout curtains, but never got around to it and the sun was bright in July. It wasn’t an issue when it was winter, but now that he’s in Winnipeg in the peak of summer, he was learning a quick lesson. 

Pate climbed out of the bed and stumbled to the bathroom to brush his teeth, something he forgot to do the night before. He splashed water on his face once he was done and swiped on some deodorant, making a mental note to actually get in the shower at some point. He ran a comb through his hair and headed to the kitchen. As he walked past his computer on the way to the kitchen, he made sure to power it on so it was fully booted up when he was done eating. He grabbed some frozen fruit from the freezer and the pint of yogurt in the fridge and made himself a smoothie. While the smoothie ingredients were in the blender, he poured himself a bowl of cereal. He sat at the kitchen island eating his cereal and enjoying his smoothie while catching up on the group chat. He saw a few messages wondering where Nik was so he threw out his little lie again, getting a few reactions from the team. 

Since when does Fly go camping?<

It must be that girl he’s been hiding away from us. He’s been disappearing from nights out before the lock down. Figured he had a girl he was hiding from us<

Well he needs to bring her around when we can all visit again<

Pate locked his phone and sat stunned. Nik didn’t tell him about any girl. All he knew was that Nik had been hanging out with him a lot before everything happened. Nik always brushed off Pate’s questions about why he wasn’t out with the team as nothing. 

Pate let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He needed to talk to Nik and that was basically impossible at this point, so he had to get to work. He sat back down at his computer and opened the game back up. He started Act 4 and the new difficulty meant that the gear he needed was dropping faster. Once he was fully geared, he started to just blast through everything without issues. He was almost to Diablo herself and decided to back out and up the game some more. He put it on Torment 16 and re-entered the game. He went through the Crystal Spire and to the entrance. 

Pate paused for a second, taking a deep breath. From all the guides he had read, this meant he only had about 2 hours of playtime left. He clicked to enter the boss room. As he defeated Diablo, he felt a weight lift off his shoulders. The next act was going to be a cakewalk. 

The game offered to take Pate to the next area, Westmarch. He clicked the accept button and was thrown in the new area. He started to work his way through, still playing on the highest difficulty. Eventually, he found himself at the end of the act. He rechecked his gear and spells to make sure that he was good to go. 

Pate took a deep breath and clicked the entrance to the boss. Once the cut scene passed, he got to work. He defeated Malthael in one shot and there was a pop up box indicating that he had beaten the game. He clicked to close it and his screen flashed. 

Aeilsil was back. 

“I see you decided to do this on the highest difficulty. I’ll make it easier on you and lower your requirements for the next two objectives.” Aeilsil was grinning as she said this. Pate figured he should be a little concerned about what she had planned, but he clicked the button to give him his next option. Seeing what it was made him excited. He gleefully clicked the button and was whisked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm upset that I didn't make this chapter 3 to fit D3 as the game. It didn't click because it's the third game.  
> Diablo is a series of games that is near and dear to my heart. I stream Diablo 3 on occasion and wanted to put a little bit of love into the lore of this game since I know it so well. It's a great story and I am still mad whenever I hit certain points of the story every time I play through it. 
> 
> Carry on!


	5. Pokemon Red/Blue

Pate clicked on the button that said Pokemon and was whisked to dodgy website. The game was still running in the background and he was given options of emulators to choose from. The ever familiar pop up box gave him some options. 

“You can play Pokemon Red or Blue on an emulator. Initially, I was going to have you do it using the same monsters as the Twitch Plays Pokemon movement, but I decided to be kind to you.”

Pate rolled his eyes, he had played Pokemon as a kid so this was going to be easy. He confidently clicked on the link for Blue and watched the download begin. It was a short download and as it was finishing up, he read over the requirements. 

“Beat the elite four and the champion.”

Pate smiled. This was going to be as easy as he thought. He closed out of the window and booted up the game. It took him a few minutes to figure out how to get his controller to work with the emulator, but once he got it figured out, he was off and running. He decided to take Squirtle as his starter, to add a little bit of a challenge. He started the story and named his rival Nik, just because he thought it was funny and he knew that Nik would have enjoyed that if he were around. As he progressed through the story, he was reminded of playing the game on his dad’s old Game Boy in the back of the car on the way to different hockey tournaments. It brought a small smile to his lips as he caught his first few Pokemon. He was glad that he got to replay a game from his childhood instead of a new game. 

Pate continued to the first gym in the game and got his first badge. As he started to get back into the story, the buzz of his door scared him. He put his controller down and walked over to the door, hitting the button to ask who it was. 

“Hello?” Pate asked as he pushed the button to the speaker. 

“Let us in. You’ve been hiding for too long.” Pate heard Kyle’s voice over the tinny speaker. Hearing the word us was never a good sign when Kyle was involved. He hit the door button reluctantly. Pate went to the kitchen, figuring it would take a few minutes for them to get up the elevator. He took a quick sip of water and heard his front door open. The cacophony that came with the door opening was enough to make anyone want to curl up and hide. 

Pate took another sip of water and stepped into his living room to be greeted by Kyle, Adam, Mark, and a very suspicious Blake. 

“Fuck, I was hoping it’d be Rosy at least with ya’ll.” Pate noticed that Blake was holding some bags of what was clearly Chinese takeout. 

“Nope, we decided you need to fess up to what’s been going on with you. Rosy wouldn’t have helped” Mark stated, grabbing the bags from Blake and setting them on the counter. 

“First, we’ll eat. Then we can talk.” Mark and Blake took to dishing up the food like the married couple that they always appeared to be while Adam and Kyle fought over who got which controller in the living room. Pate sighed and grabbed the plates from the cupboard. He pointed to the drawer the silverware was in and everyone grabbed a little bit of everything and headed to the living room. They ate, chatting about teammates and Kyle brought up Nik. They were concerned that Nik had been gone for so long without telling anyone. 

“Speaking of Nik, have you heard from him?” Pate choked on a piece of sesame chicken. As he was coughing, in an attempt to clear his throat, Mark got up and whacked him on the back. He was able to stop coughing and breathe again. 

“Kind of?” Pate supplied, wiping tears from his eyes from the coughing fit. 

“Well, is he ok?” Blake was straight to the point. They were clearly concerned about Nik and Pate knew how it would go if he tried to dodge answering questions about Nik right now. 

“Kind of?” Pate answered again, not quite sure how to explain to his captain that Nik was trapped inside of some weird video game and that he’s been working on getting him free. 

“You’ve been playing Pokemon?” Adam piped in, clearly looking at Pate’s computer screen. 

“Yeah, got a weird itch for it” Adam seemed satisfied with that answer and went back to eating his food. Kyle, on the other hand, was less than impressed. 

“I don’t believe you.” Kyle said, pointedly. 

“Yeah, you don’t seem to be the type. I’ve never seen you play the new one on your switch during flights.” Mark deciding to chime in with his astute observation skills. 

Pate sighed, realizing that he could dance around the subject all night or just come clean about what was going on. 

“It’s for a quest I’m doing” Pate mumbled out. Blake looked at him, throughly confused. 

“A quest?” 

Pate got up and minimized the game and opened steam. 

“I think it’s easier to just show you guys.” Pate said as he opened Spirits of Fate. He clicked through to the chat box and requested to see Nik. The familiar bottle popped up on the screen and Nik sat there, looking sad. He looked up and it felt like he knew who was looking at him. He started to wave, a half smile forming on his face. Pate wished that he had a way to smile back, but all he could do is point to the screen. 

“Is that Nik? In your computer?” Adam seemed confused and looked scared of Pate. 

“This game trapped him there. I’m just trying to get him back.” Pate said, sadly. He continued on.

“It was his idea to try out some new game and I just went along with it. I just want him back.” 

Blake spoke up next, confident as always.

“What can we do to help?” 

The others nodded their head, offering different levels of help. Pate closed out of the game and sat down in his chair. 

“I don’t know. I just need to finish this game and if it pops up a game that I can use help with, I’ll let you guys know. Please don’t tell the rest of the team?” Pate was scared that the rest of the team would have too much ammo to use against him in the future if he knew he was on some journey to rescue Nik. The others finished eating and cleaned up their dishes. After a few more reminders to not isolate too much, they left and he was left alone with his computer again. 

Pate synced his controller back to his computer and started to work his way to the second gym. He made quick work of that gym and found himself getting immersed in the game again. When he looked up next, it was four in the morning and he had just left Saffron City with his sixth badge in hand. He yawned and decided that was a good stopping point. He turned his computer off and headed to bed.

Once Pate was lying down, he opened his phone and looked at some old pictures he had taken with Nik. He fell asleep thinking about the time Nik and him went shopping together in Chicago. It was a magical moment and he was glad to replay it over and over. 

When Pate woke up, he was greeted by a ton of messages from Kyle. Kyle apparently did some research on this game and people getting trapped in it was normal. He also had a list of games and objectives. According to Kyle, he only had two more games after Pokemon. He had gotten so caught up in the rush of everything that he forgot how much he had accomplished so far. He thanked Kyle for the information and climbed out bed. He went through his normal morning routine, even though his clock read noon. After eating some of the leftovers that Blake and the guys left, he sat back down on his computer. He booted the games up and got to work. Before he knew it, he had caught basically what he needed for the rest of his journey and set to work on finishing the last two gyms. 

Before Pate started on the Indigo League, he grabbed a drink and sent Kyle and Adam a text letting them know he was almost done with this step. He figured those two would let the other two know what was going on. He took another sip of his water and then headed back to his computer. He had an elite four to beat. 

It only took Pate 2 tries to beat all four and then he was faced with the champion. He quickly beat the champion and before he could close out of the game, Aeilsil popped up. 

“Good job. This one was fast for you. I’m impressed.” Aeilsil waved her hand, giving him two options for his next objective. He closed his eyes and clicked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, you can play Pokemon on an emulator. It's technically against the "rules", but if you can find the game, go off and have fun!


	6. League of Legends

Pate opened his eyes, realizing he had clicked on League of Legends. He had watched streams of it in the past, but he never quite understood how it worked. 

“Your goal is to win 20 matches You can play on any mode and you can have friends join you.” Aeilsil disappeared from his screen and his game started the download. Pate sent Kyle a text message, asking if he’s ever played it. 

>Yeah, quite a bit in college and high school. Is that your next game?

Pate responded and he saw his discord start to light up with a voice call. He tossed his headphones on and answered Kyle. 

“So, I can have the others join in to help out. Want to do a quick tutorial or wait for the others?” Pate figured he’d wait and told Kyle so. Soon enough, Mark, Blake, and Adam joined the call. Kyle quickly explained the game to them and the mechanics. Pate let Kyle know the objective of the quest and Kyle quickly spoke up. 

“ARAM is going to be our best bet. The games are faster and it’s a casual mode.” Pate was thankful to hear it was a more casual mode and faster. The sooner he could get through this step, the better. 

Kyle guided the rest of the guys through a quick tutorial in the game itself and then queued everyone up for a match. The first match went horribly in Pate’s eyes. They won, but only because Kyle carried them. When he got to the end of match screen, he saw he got a B+ on his character. Either way, he was glad he got a win out of the gate. Getting 20 was going to be difficult if him and the others can’t figure out the game. 

The next game got queued up and Pate was given the character Jinx to play. He got to work and this time he felt like he contributed. Between him, Kyle, and Adam they figured out how to pull off some combos. He was able to rack up some kills and they came out victorious again. The next match, however, went horribly. Kyle was given a character that he had never played before and when Kyle struggles, so does the whole team. 

They played a few more matches, getting two more wins as a team, and then Blake and Mark both said they had to go, so it was just Kyle, Adam, and Pate remaining. Kyle suggested that they play few more and just pick up randoms for the matches. Adam agreed and they got to work on getting through the matches. After another six matches and four wins, Adam and Kyle let Pate know that they were done for a bit. Pate couldn’t blame them, he was in need of a break as well. 

Pate stood up and stretched his legs. He had been playing for about six hours. He figured he’d find some food and take a break to do his exercises for his hand. He also made a mental note to buy a new, more comfortable, mouse for his computer. As he was rubbing his hand and using his fancy putty, he heard his phone vibrate against the coffee table in front of him. He did the last few seconds of his hold and then grabbed his phone. He briefly debated just leaving the message on read after seeing the preview on his lock screen. 

>Did you rescue your lover boy yet?

Pate was convinced that he was going to actually murder Sasha for this. 

No, but if you want to help you can.<

If Sasha wanted to tell jokes, he could help out. Pate didn’t want to try and navigate playing League solo, plus having a friend that was probably just as bad as him would be fun. He got a quick response from Sasha and after some back and forth he found himself back at his computer on a discord call with him. 

“So you just need some wins? How many do you have so far?” Sasha asked after agreeing to help. 

“Six so far. Need twenty” Pate responded as he opened the game and the website that Kyle had sent him and the others to use as a guide for each character. 

“Cool. Which mode? You said Kyle was helping you right?” 

“Yeah, and some mode where we’re randomly given characters. I don’t know the name of it man.” Pate was frustrated because he knew that Sasha probably had to do the tutorial as well before they could get going and he was on the verge of hunger. 

“ARAMs. Easy enough. Let me login and I’ll send you a friend request”

Pate’s screen popped up fast with a friend request and Pate’s eyes widened. Apparently Sasha had a good reason for turning down games of Fortnite now. If Kyle was good enough to carry 4 excitable morons, then Sasha was going to be able to carry Pate the rest of the way. 

“So, you need 14 more wins? Right?” Sasha’s voice was tinny through Pate’s headphones. 

“Yeah, 14. How long will that take?” Sasha laughed and Pate felt embarrassed for asking.

“Not too long, maybe tonight and tomorrow? If we’re lucky.” 

They queued into a match and the way Sasha played and directed Pate made Pate feel like he was truly the newbie. This must be what it felt like when Pate would carry Sasha in Fortnite. When he was playing with Kyle and the guys, it felt like them just messing around for fun. Playing with Sasha felt like they were on a mission and they weren’t going to fail. They won the first match easily, bringing him closer to finishing the objective.

“Since when did you play this? And why didn’t you ever tell me?” Pate asked of Sasha. 

“You always liked Fortnite and Fifa more so I never thought it was important.” 

“Fair enough”

They queued into another match and this time Pate was playing a character he had played before, so he was able to actually contribute. He racked up 35 kills and was able to actually achieve mastery on the character. They queued in again and before Pate realized it, he only needed 5 more wins. He heard Sasha yawn over the mic. 

“Dude, I agree. I need sleep too.” Pate countered. He was so happy that he was close to completing the objective. He figured he could bang out the last 5 wins in the morning. He noticed he had gotten better throughout the night in terms of how to actually play the game. Over the last few matches he was genuinely enjoying himself. 

“Let me know when you get up. I’ll help you get the last few you need.” Pate heard the familiar sound of someone disconnecting from a Discord call. He yawned and closed out of the call and head to the bathroom. He couldn’t remember when the last time he actually showered was, so he figured he’d do that at least. His ex would have made him shower by this point. Hell, even Nik would have chirped him for being a greasy fuck. Everything keeps coming back to Nik. Even thinking of his ex came back to the thought of Nik. 

Pate couldn’t blame her for breaking up with him over how much time he was spending with Nik. She was concerned that he was more in love with his teammate than her. On some level, she was probably right. If he was less of a coward, he’d actually talk to Nik about this. 

As Pate showered, those comments his teammates made about Nik having some secret girlfriend kept running through his mind. Maybe Nik was keeping her secret because he saw what Pate went through? That was the only thing he could think of that would have Nik keep that kind of secret from him. He finished up his shower and took a quick minute to shave. Once he was done with all of that, he climbed into bed and crashed almost right away. 

When Pate woke up, there were about 5 missed calls from Kyle. He sent a quick text letting him know that he was up late and was just now waking up. He saw the time and it was about one in the afternoon. He did his morning routine and headed to the kitchen. He popped a pod in the coffee machine and heated up some food. Eventually he was going to actually have to eat proper nutritional food, but it was the offseason and he wasn’t ready to start training again yet. He had other pressing matters to attend to. 

Pate grabbed his food from the microwave and carried it to his desk. He saw that Sasha and Kyle were both online so he whipped up a quick group chat with the three of them and asked if they’d be down to play. They quickly caught on to what he was looking at doing so he started the voice call. 

“How many do you have left?” Kyle asked, ready to spend the whole day playing. 

“Five. Then I can move on to the last step.” Pate responded, already opening up the game. 

They grouped up and got into a match, ready to knock out some wins. Sasha and Kyle worked well together, telling Pate where to go and what to do with the character he got assigned. They knocked out three more wins and Pate was getting keyed up. He was super close to getting his Nik back. 

They lost the next match and Pate let out a sigh that the other two picked up on. 

“It happens. We can’t win them all. We’re super close though.” Kyle’s voice was a bit tinny over the voice call. Pate was worried the longer they took the worse Nik was going to be once he was free. 

They queued into another match, Sasha taking the lead once again. They squeaked out a victory, despite Pate struggling immensely during the match. As they queued into what would be possibly their last match, Kyle and Sasha reminded Pate that they would keep going until they got the win. Pate smiled, knowing that his friends would help him no matter what. Thankfully, they were able to dominate and get a win. Pate screeched, eliciting complaints from the other two. He apologized and thanked them for the help. As he was closing out of the call, the ever familiar Aeilsil popped up on his screen. Pate had one last task to conquer and he was more than ready to do so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LoL is a game I've played only with friends and my partner (and never on my own). The only mode I've played is ARAMS because those people who I play with love and care about me. This was initially going to be DOTA 2, but my partner (an avid DOTA player) said that it's too complex and would anger him too much to try and explain it. So, LoL it is!


	7. Civilization 6

As the pop up window opened, Pate knew that he was going to get whatever the task was, accomplished tonight. 

Aeilsil started the overly extravagant speech about being close to the end. 

“You’ve conquered almost all of my challenges. Are you ready for the last step?”

Pate clicked the button indicating that he was ready to go. He didn’t care what game it was, he was going to get it finished today. 

“Your challenge is to gain a culture victory in Civilization Six.”

Pate tilted his head to the side, noticing the download had already started. He had played Civ with friends in the past, so it was just an update that he needed. He opened the game and saw that the settings were already set for him. He browsed the available leaders and settled on the Canadian one. He figured it was the safest way to get his win since he wouldn’t be attacked often. The game started and he focused on all the culture building items. Soon enough, he was checking over his stats and he was in the lead. Except he wasn’t leading for culture and instead religion. He rolled with it, knowing that the game could change over time. 

Pate started to send his scouts around and found a couple natural wonders. That started to boost his culture some, but he was still dominating with religion. Eventually he was given the chance to found a religion and decided to name it #FreeNik. He spread his religion all over, hoping it would catch on. Once he had trade routes set up, he focused his energies on culture again. This was starting to feel harder than it needed to be. As the game progressed, he got increasingly more frustrated with the lack of progress in the culture domination. His religion domination was unmatched, but he just couldn’t get culture to budge. 

Pate paused the game and decided to look up the tips for getting the culture victory. He read over a guide quickly and saw that he had been doing everything right, it was just incredibly difficult. He went back to the game and focused on building his theater areas some more. Once he had his first great person, he assigned them to work on culture. He started to watch his culture points creep closer to the top of the list. He kept building on those areas, eventually seeing himself in second place on the culture board. The problem was that he was also still number one in religion. 

Pate closed his eyes, frustrated with how things have been progressing. Usually when he’d play Civ, he’d just go for a domination victory or science. Religion and culture were just too fussy for him to pull off. He looked at his screen and saw the option for more religion points, so he took them. He figured if he could rush this victory, he could try again.

A few hours passed and Pate found himself close to winning with religion, even though his culture was still solidly in second place. He saw his screen flicker for a second and he panicked that the game was crashing on him. Before he knew it, Aeilsil was on his screen. 

“Your friend is getting restless, so I’ve decided to modify how you finish this step. You can get a religion victory and I’ll free him.” 

Pate’s eyes widened. He was close to getting that exact thing and he was ready for Nik to be free. As he closed out of the pop up box, he smiled. He was only 10 turns away from that victory. He could almost taste it. His struggles over the past couple of weeks were going to be finally worth it. 

Those turns passed and Pate saw his screen show him the victory. He was proud of himself because his culture was still in second place, so it wasn’t like he didn’t try. He closed his eyes and saw Aeilsil reappear on his screen. 

“You may free him now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've played a ton of CIV 5 and quite a bit of CIV 6 and never have I ever gotten a damn culture victory, so of course it's what I went with for the goal. Had to make it challenging ;)
> 
> Fun fact: I can't play any CIV game with my partner because he's an anal retentive person who micro-manages every single turn, thus turning the game into an endlessly long battle against my patience. He's also weirdly competitive about this game.


	8. Rescue Missions

Pate grinned. He opened Spirits of Fate and found himself in the game again, playing his toon. He quickly ran through the area that he was in and came upon a giant bottle. He wasn’t quite sure how it worked, so he started to grab the bottle and shake it some in an attempt to knock it over. The bottle didn’t budge one bit and Pate got frustrated. He looked around the area and found himself some giant rocks. 

Before Pate could consider the repercussions of what he was going to do, he started to chuck the rocks at the bottle. He saw the bottle start to chip near desk where Nik was sitting. Nik looked up and saw what Pate was doing and had a concerned look on his face. Pate carried on, throwing more and more rocks at the bottle. As he did so, Nik backed up against the other side of the bottle, clearly scared of what was to come. Eventually a hole in the glass formed. Pate took a run at it, using a giant stick to break off chunks of the glass. He waved Nik over, showing him his escape. 

Nik inched forward and climbed over the broken glass. As he was trying to escape, the chains that were holding him to the bed caught on the jagged edges of the glass. Nik tripped over and his whole body slammed against the side of the bottle. Pate sighed, knowing that he’d have to somehow break the chains. As he looked up, he noticed that Nik was gone from the game and the chain was just dangling there. 

Panic started to set in. Pate didn’t mean to kill Nik. He just wanted Nik back. He wondered for a second how they would trace it to him. It happened in a video game, not real life. There was no way they could trace manslaughter back to him. As he sat at his desk anguishing, he felt a tap on his shoulder. 

Pate jumped about 2 feet in the air as a very bloody and tired, yet real life human, Nik stood behind him. 

“Thank you” Nik whispered. 

Pate got out of his chair and grabbed Nik in a tight embrace. He rested his head on top of Nik’s, breathing a huge sigh of relief. Nik was free and in his arms. 

“Do you want to shower? Pate asked, unsure where they actually stood after all of this.” Nik nodded and Pate guided him to the bathroom off his bedroom. He wasn’t sure if he had any clothes that would actually fit Nik, but he grabbed a pair of old sweatpants and one of his team hoodies. He left the bedroom after laying the clothes out on the bed. He went and grabbed some premade meals from his freezer and popped them in the oven. He wasn’t sure the last time Nik ate and wanted to make sure he could do his best by Nik. He sat on the couch, flipping through the channels on the tv. He settled on TSN, which was playing SportsCentre. Soon enough he heard the water turn off and a few minutes later Nik was walking through his apartment in the old clothes that Pate had laid out. He realized in that moment that all the feelings that he felt for Nik went beyond just friendship. Seeing Nik in his clothes sent a wave of possessiveness over him. 

“I put some food in the oven for us. It’s just chicken and pasta, but I figured you’d be fine with that.” Pate started to ramble, unsure of how to bring up what he just realized. He watched Nik rub the towel on his head in an attempt to dry his hair some. Nik gave a small smile as he collapsed on the couch next to Pate. 

“That sounds great. I got to eat while I was in there, it just wasn’t the greatest food.” Nik said as he leaned into Pate. 

“So, I have a dumb question.” Pate asked, considering throwing an arm around Nik. 

“I don’t want to talk about being in there.” Nik responded. 

“Nah, I am glad you’re not in there anymore. The guys were saying you have a girlfriend. Is that true?” 

Nik laughed and punched Pate in the arm jokingly. 

“When have I ever had a girlfriend? You know I’d tell you.” Nik laughed as he burrowed his way into Pate’s arms. Pate reached down and without thinking ran his hand through Nik’s damp hair. He heard Nik moan at the touch and the sudden realization hit him. Nik has never been the type to go after the girls when the team would go out after games. Nik also never talked about past girlfriends. Whenever those conversations would come up in the locker room, he’d just stay out of them. Pate always figured it was none of his business and at the time, he was in a relationship. 

“I don’t remember any girls. Are you even into girls?” Nik sat up, pulling away from Pate. His eyes had widened and he looked ready to run. As he did so, the oven dinged, letting them know the food was done. They both rushed to the kitchen and went different directions around the island in a search for some oven mitts. 

They ran into each other and Pate grabbed Nik by the arm and stared down at him. Nik had closed his eyes and Pate decided he had his answer. He cupped Nik’s face and kissed him softly. Nik leaned up into the kiss, his arms wrapping around Pate. 

They broke the kiss and looked at each other. The oven dinged again as a reminder about the food. Pate grabbed the oven mitts from the drawer and grabbed the food and tossed it on the stovetop to cool down. 

“You never answered my question.” Pate said pointedly as he grabbed dishes to put the food on. Nik stood there, dazed and unable to help. 

“No. I’m into you? I’ve been into you for a few years now.” Nik closed his eyes tight, afraid of what would come next. He heard Pate laughing. 

“If you couldn’t tell, I’m into you as well.” Nik opened his eyes and there was food on the counter in front of him. He smiled, the relief washing over his face. He grabbed his fork and plate and headed to the living room. Pate followed him and they sat down next to each other and ate in comfortable silence. 

“We should figure this out.” Nik said as he placed his fork on the empty plate. 

“I thought we figured it out. We’re into each other. What more is there to figure out?” Pate was to the point and he could feel Nik pushing into his side. 

“Are we going to tell the team?” Pate laughed. He didn’t know if he wanted his relationship to be broadcast to the team quite yet. 

“No, we just need to tell them you’re alive. I told everyone you went camping.” Nik laughed at that. 

“None of them really believed I went camping did they?” 

“They didn’t outright say that, but probably.” Pate laughed along with Nik. 

“Maybe we should go camping. Fool them all.” Nik leaned into Pate, making himself comfortable. He didn’t have any place to be anytime soon.


	9. Among Us (Epilogue)

“So the goal of this game is to either to fix the ship up before the impostor kills us all or if you’re the imposter, to kill us all while sabotaging stuff.” Adam explained over the voice call. Most of the team was in the discord server created for the team. They decided that they’d try their hand at playing games together after what had happened to Nik. That way, if some weird wood creature decided to steal a teammate, they could all help get him back. 

“That’s it?” Nik asked, figuring out that it seemed like a simple enough game. 

“Yes, and if you find a dead body, you can report it and we all can vote on who we think it might be and eject them from the ship.” 

Pate laughed at Nik on his laptop behind him already plotting how he’d kill everyone if given the chance. The team was lucky that they were on push to talk because none of them knew that Nik had basically moved into Pate’s apartment over the past few weeks. 

Adam started the game and the team got quiet over the voice call as they were all assigned their roles. Pate heard Nik cackle and he could understand why. They were both the impostors and it was about to be a horrible day for their teammates. They coordinated to take down everyone and decided to self-report on the 3rd kill. They worked as a pair so it didn’t look too obvious. They made their case that they would have totally killed one another if given the chance and since they had been running around doing tasks together, there was no way it was either of them. The team fell for the bait and they set off on their mission to kill everyone else. They were able to take out the rest of the team with no hassle and no other meetings getting called. Once the round ended, the team broke out in total chaos in the voice chat. Pate put himself on mute and took his headphones off. He walked over to Nik and kissed him softly. He knew at least he had his boyfriend to help him annoy the team going forward. 

The team kept playing the game the whole night, being suspicious of the pair the whole time. The last game of the night, Nik was the imposter and Pate wasn’t. Nik decided to follow Pate around and ended up killing him and then self-reporting. 

“Who killed my boyfriend?” Nik said, not thinking about the words that came out of his mouth. Pate’s eyes widened as he whipped his head around at Nik, who was sitting there regretting his word choice. 

“Boyfriend? You guys figured shit out?” Kyle was helpful as always. The team chimed in saying their congrats as the voting time expired. Nik had gotten away with one kill, and was on a mission to get the rest. 

The team continued to play that round and eventually figured out that Nik was one of the impostors. They finished the tasks and won the game. Everyone decided that they were done for the night, so Pate and Nik hopped off discord. 

“Boyfriend? Also, that was dirty how you did that.” Pate wrapped his arms around Nik and kissed his forehead. 

“Mmm. Yeah, boyfriend.” Nik snuggled in closer and smiled. 

Of all the people in the world to save him, he was lucky he got his giant nerd of a boyfriend to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Given the recent popularity of Among Us, I thought it would be a fun little ending to this. Initially I was just going to have them default to FIFA or Fortnite, but I thought this would be a fun nod to what's popular now. 
> 
> I'm always purple. It's just who I am. 
> 
> Thank you for reading this!

**Author's Note:**

> The title of the fic comes from the song "Count My Blessings" by Spor. Thanks for reading!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[soundtrack] if all these things are lessons, then I should count my blessings](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27598843) by [somehowunbroken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/somehowunbroken/pseuds/somehowunbroken)




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